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on air: the CID Podcast

on air: the CID Podcast 1865 916 ide3a

The ide3a network is proud to present the CID podcast. The CID podcast series is a production created as a part of the ide3a project and the associated lecture series “Critical Infrastructure & Digitalization” (CID).

The CID podcast provides not only an overview of digital and technological transformations in different urban infrastructure systems such as water, energy or mobility but also valuable insights into the different research areas of the interviewed experts. The series is featuring David Bermbach, Andrea Cominola, Rita Maria Ugarelli, Sangyoung Park and Monica Vitali.

Urban water systems are increasingly pressured by a growing number of challenges, such as water scarcity, pollution, ageing infrastructure etc. Digital transformation of the water utilities can play a crucial role in improving the resilience of these critical infrastructures. In our interview with Prof. Dr. Andrea Cominola (Chair of Smart Water Networks -Technische Universität Berlin) we go on a journey around the globe to see where water utilities are currently standing in the process of digitalisation.

While digital technologies bring great opportunities, it is important to talk about the downsides as well: critical infrastructures are increasingly popular targets of physical and cyber attacks. STOP-IT is a pioneering research project focusing on developing solutions to protect the water infrastructure against such threats. Prof. Rita Ugarelli (Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering – Norwegian University of Science and Technology) is one of the lead scientists of this exciting project. In our second podcast we learn about how such cyberphysical attacks look like, and we also discuss the importance of educating professionals in the water sector to be prepared to deal with such challenges.

Another industry facing various challenges and opportunities in the age of digitalisation is the mobility sector. In the third episode of the CID podcast our guest is Prof. Dr. Sangyoung Park (Chair of Smart Mobility Systems – Technische Universität Berlin) who specializes in the electrification of the transport sector while also tackling the question of how to enhance the safety of vehicles by means of digitalization and connectivity. Prof. Park helps us get a better understanding of the numerous trends influencing the transport industry, from electric vehicles, through autonomous driving to shared mobility.

In podcast no. 4 starring Prof. Dr. David Bermbach (Chair of Mobile Cloud Computing – Technische Universität Berlin) we continue our journey in the field of sustainable urban mobility. If you also believe that a bicycle is one of the best means of transport to get around a city, this episode is for you! Prof. Bermbach tells us about the biggest challenges and most important tasks the sector must face to transition towards more sustainable solutions. We also get to know SIMRA, an app developed by Prof. Bermbach and his team, aiming to increase safety in bicycle traffic. (If this is a mission close to your heart, you can also become part of the project by installing the app on your phone.)

Data centers play a major role in our every day life enabling a level of comfort and accessibility to a huge amount of data which wasn’t imaginable 30 years ago. However, the same data centers are notorious for their high power consumption. With the climate crisis in sight, the demand for more energy-efficient data centers is growing stronger. In our final podcast episode with Prof. Monica Vitali (Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering – Politecnico di Milano) we explore the future of cloud computing and imagine how a sustainable data center could look like.

All interviews were moderated by Dóra Hegyi (Chair of Smart Water Networks – Technische Universität Berlin) and edited by Bea Meyer (Central Institution Scientific Continuing Education and Cooperation – Technische Universität Berlin). The entire ide3a team would like to thank Dóra and Bea, as well as the experts for this amazing collaboration. All the podcasts are independent entities and can be listened to in any order.

AGU Fall Meeting 2022 recapped

AGU Fall Meeting 2022 recapped 1600 1200 ide3a

The ide3a network is proud to announce that this year’s AGU 2022 Fall Meeting taking place from the 12th to the 16th of December in Chicago was attended by our dear colleagues Giuseppe Angelini and Markus Fischer in person.

This year’s AGU conference was attended by around 25,000 participants representing scientists, teaching personnel, as well as policymakers from more than 100 countries in a hybrid manner fostering a breeding ground to form international collaborations for a sustainable future; therefore offering a great opportunity for the ide3a network to promote the network itself and to  present the serious game ‘ConnectiCity’ to an international scientific audience to obtain valuable feedback and for further improvement.

The oral presentation of Giuseppe Angelini entitled Playing = Learning? Learn about Modelling and Simulation of Interconnected Urban Infrastructure while Playing with ConnectiCity was held on the first conference day. Markus Fischer took it up on him with a poster presentation on Thursday entitled ide3a – A Multidisciplinary and International Eduaction Platform on Interconnected Urban Infrastructure Systems Under Review. Both presentations were very well received by the audience showing ide3a’s great potential in the scientific community.

We once again, would thank Giuseppe Angelini and Markus Fischer for the participation as well as the organizers of AGU for this amazing opportunity.

3rd ide3a conference recapped

3rd ide3a conference recapped 1593 782 ide3a

After several years of travel restrictions due to the global COVID-19 pandemic the ide3a network is proud to announce that its 3rd annual conference was successfully concluded from the October 24 till 25  as the first in-person meeting in Berlin. While complying to applicable COVID-19 measurements the conference was attended by 21 partners representing the various partner universities and institutions such as CUT Cracow, DCU Dublin, NTNU Trondheim, HPI Potsdam, and TU Berlin to wrap up the third year of the ide3a project and to provide an overview of the on-going developments in the ide3a project focusing on several aspects regarding the three pillars of the ide3a project: e-learning, e-mobility and e-research. Opportunities of future collaborations where discussed as well.

One of the highlights of the conference was the presentation of ConnectiCity which is a serious game on urban water networks and interconnected infrastructure. Despite the game still being under development by a research group of the ide3a team the game already shows a promising potential regarding its teaching purposes receiving not only positive but also insightful feedback from the participants of the conference to tune the further development of the game. The goal is to release ConnectiCity as an open-source game allowing students to get a grasp about the relation between urban water networks and urban mobility while also allowing the students as well as teaching personnel to customize the settings of the game.

Each day was completed with a get-together event allowing to wind down and catch up with old acquaintances but also established new social networks between the partners. We would like to thank everyone for their attendance and hope to meet again soon.

Applications for ide3a scholarships 2022 are open

Applications for ide3a scholarships 2022 are open 2560 1523 ide3a

**ATTENTION**: We have extended the deadline for applications until 19 June 2022 – Only for those topics that we have not received applications yet.

As last year ide3a offers interested and qualified students the opportunity to write their Master/Bachelor thesis with a DAAD-funded scholarship for a research stay at a partner university and joint supervision. There is a total of 12 topics students from the involved universities can apply for. Students from TU Berlin can apply for one of our partner universities: NTNU Trondheim (Norway), DCU Dublin (Ireland), or Politecnico di Milano (Italy) while students from the aforementioned universities have the opportunity to apply for a scholarship at TU Berlin.

Students of all subject areas depending on the topic can apply for DAAD-funded scholarships to write their thesis at one of these universities starting from the summer semester 2022. The duration of the stipend for your stay abroad is expected to be three months with the option to extend it, if there are capacities.

What do you gain from this?

• Equipment, knowledge and supervision: The best of both universities!
• Internationalisation of your research profile and international experience
• Support with the administrative procedures
• DAAD-funded scholarship with monthly payments and a lump sum for travel expenses

How do you apply for a scholarship?

  1. Please read through the provided descriptions of the topics carefully and decide on the topic which appeals to you the most. Please consider that only students of the two involved universities can apply for each topic.
  2. Prepare the requested documents in one PDF and complete the form accordingly.
  3. If you are selected you will be informed and receive further instructions within 3 weeks after the deadline. We kindly ask you for your patience.

The documents required for applying are the following. Please upload them in one single Pdf-File at the end of the application form.

• Letter of motivation (maximum 1 page)
• CV (maximum 2 pages)
• Bachelor certificate for Master students and/or current transcript of records
• Letter of recommendation of a professor of your home university is desirable but not required
• Current enrollment certificate

An overview of the offered topics are presented in the following table. Respective links will guide you to the application form which also contains further information:

Smart City Hackathon 2021 concluded

Smart City Hackathon 2021 concluded 1836 657 ide3a

The ide3a network is proud to announce its first successfully hosted hybrid Smart City Hackathon which has taken place at the Technische Universität Berlin from the 1st till the 3rd of December 2021.

© Bea Meyer

Following strict COVID-19 safety measures a total of 69 students of more than 15 nationalities representing four of the ide3a partner universities have come together at the TUB and in the world wide web. The students formed eleven teams to face a jury proving their acquired expertise from the attendance of previous ide3a schools in a field of their choice from several field subjects related to the water, energy and infrastructure sector while being guided by their assigned mentor. To ensure COVID-19 safety measures the teams were assigned a room each while participants as well as staff members were required to undergo daily testing.

Nikhil Chaudhary, Climate-KIC ©Bea Meyer

The jury consisted of TUB ide3a professors and ambassadors, professor Paweł S. Hachaj from the Institute of Water Engineering and Water Research at the Cracow University of Technology as well as the research associate Morgan K. Geldenhuys from the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Technische Universität Berlin. To increase the excitement of the participants for their subject field of choice the Smart City Hackathon featured Nikhil Chaudhary as guest speaker who emphasized the importance of sustainability in his talk about the Climate-KIC (Knowledge and Innovation Community) which is an EU initiative working to accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon and resilient world by enabling systems transformation.

After three days of intensive research and working the teams hack4future, TITANS and Resilient Edgers emerged as winning teams and were rewarded prizes, amongst other things a digital hand shower. The ide3a network would like to congratulate the winning teams again and thank every single student for their participation wishing every student a successful onward journey in their education!

©Lisa Westphal